Tiqun 'Olam — Improving the World One Job at a Time

AQQ

"I think they are in trouble; they just don't know it yet. The Bible says, Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof. (Ecc. 7.8) So we'll just have to wait and see how this thing turns out before we say what happened."

— Socrates Ruggles

AQC: The Significance of Mary Ingles’s Life

The Significance of Mary’s Life

Against what background can we view the life of Mary Ingles. What is the significance of this single event that people should continue to discuss it after so long a time? I think it can best be understood in the light of the great intellectual tradition that culminated in what is often referred to as the Judeo-Christian, or Biblical wisdom literature.

The significance of a single life in the worldview of the wisdom tradition can best be grasped, according to Prof. James Kugel of Harvard University, by comparing that life to the canvas of an artist. Each of us gets to paint a canvas; just one, then it is ours forever. Not everyone will produce a masterpiece. It is difficult to evaluate a painting — or a life — while it is in progress. What was potential becomes actual as the process continues, but many other possibilities are ruled out as the canvas fills up. At last it is filled up completely. It is only then that we can step back and see its significance: The past is present there on the canvas.

It is not the subject that counts. All those brushstrokes, and everyday events, were creating a stark reality, not shades of gray, but in black and white, standing aloof from the variegated intricacies of life — for neither money, ability, position, or intelligence, is what counts in the end. What counts in this view of the world is what Prof. Kugel calls “the sharp contrast of moral opposites and all-or-nothing choices”. With one bold stroke Mary marked her canvas forever. This event eclipses everything else in her life. It is the main thing we see when we see her canvas. It is not the journey itself that stands out; it is the spirit in which she did it. Her travelling companion made the same journey, but what tends to stand out there, for most viewers, is the “moral opposite” — even her name has been forgotten. We must not only do a thing, we must do it surpassingly well against all odds to produce a masterpiece.

The Song of Moses (Psalm 90), as Prof. Kugel says, stands as a kind of culmination of the wisdom tradition: The Psalmist reminds us that if, by reason of strength, we reach the age of fourscore years, still we are soon cut off and fly away: so teach us to number our days, and apply our hearts unto wisdom. Then the song continues, showing us the significance and value of life: Let Thy work appear unto Thy servants, and Thy glory unto their children, and let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us. It is this stark beauty that rests upon the life of such as Mary Ingles. The “all-or-nothing” choice was Mary’s, but both Mary and her son, John, attributed the accomplishment of it to the work of divine Providence. Her inspiring deed has enriched us by example, becoming part of the texture of our life and history. It teaches us to value the beauty possible in each individual life, for some of her beauty has come to rest upon us.

James Duvall, M. A.

Big Bone University: Think Tank & Public Policy Center
Nec ossa solum, sed etiam sanguinem.

The Idea of World History: Still Misunderstood

An Archival Quality Quotation:

The idea of world history was born of the European mind at a time when Europe itself was spreading its power to the four quarters of the globe. We, who are so used to it, forget how novel this idea was and how late in its appearance. The voyages of the fifteenth century, and the continued explorations and settlements that followed, opened the whole world to European civilization. Hitherto history had been local or tribal, limited to particular peoples or empires. By the eighteenth century the age of the enlightenment could envision all humanity as the subject of one history and the whole earth as the theater of a single drama.

It was only natural then that Europe, at this moment of expansive power and in the self-assurance of its mission, should create the idea of universal history after its own image and see itself as the center of the historical process, natural too that it should read the meaning of this history in the terms on which it prided its own civilization.

William Barrett, The Illusion of Technique: A Search for Meaning in Technological Civilization (Anchor Books, 1979), p. 196.

AQC: Tax Equalization in Old Kentucky

Monday, 24 September 2007

Mr. Richard Crisler
North Bend Bottoms
Boone County, Kentucky

Dear Sir,

It was nice to talk to you today about Boone County History. I think there is quite a lot, especially about the northern part of Boone County that I could learn from you. I look forward to seeing your completed book, or books. Do you have any papers or other material you have compiled that might be instructive for someone such as myself to review? If so I would look them over right away and return the material to you as soon as possible.

In regard to your question about tax equalization, I will be as informative as possible, but I do not (yet) know how the equalizations function, or why it seems to fall on some taxpayers, and not others. There must be some formula for how the equalizations function, or some policy as to whom it applies, and when. That will have to wait for an answer at a later time.

Equalization refers to the process of achieving a uniform rate of valuation, and hence an equitable burden of taxes. This may be between individual taxpayers within a district; or it may refer to a means of equalizing them between districts, which would be counties in Kentucky. The aim is that similar property would be taxed at like values uniformly across the state, not according to local considerations. (Black’s Law Dictionary, s.v. “Equalization”) This applied to counties, and not to individual taxpayers within the county, in Kentucky. This can be shown from the fact that the Commonwealth received the property taxes; the county laid a levy on individuals. The counties today receive part of the property taxes, but even now equalization is between counties. The current law states: “The Department of Revenue shall equalize each year the Assessments of the property among the counties. . . . When the property of any county, or any class of property in any county, is not assessed at its fair cash value, such assessment shall be increased or decreased to its fair cash value by fixing the percentage of increase or decrease necessary to effect the equalization.” (K.R.S. 133.150)

In the early days the land was divided into first, second, and third rate lands. This seems to have been changed by the equalization law. At least in the 1840 tax book, at which I am looking right now, the lands are not so rated, nor in any later book which I have examined. This is probably because the classification of the various rates was so subjective that many first and second class lands hid under the third class rate. The equalization was to establish the true value of the land instead of classifying all the classes at the same rate.

There are some interesting remarks made on this taxation in the American Almanac and Repository of Useful Knowledge for the Year 1842.

"Kentucky. — This State had a revenue from taxation, in 1839, of $250,000 on an assessment of ten cents on $100; by a law of the last session this tax has been increased five cents on the $100. The State has also a revenue of over $40,000 derived from taxes on law process, deeds, seals, &c." (p. 105)

The Commercial Review of the South and West, for 1850, edited by J. D. B. de Bow in New Orleans, lists all the revenue in the state for 1845 and 1846. He summarizes this by saying:

"The whole value of the above articles, including the effects of the equalization, about 27 millions, was, in 1846, estimated in taxation at $242,388,967. The whole revenue from taxes, $1383,283. The average value of land in the State was estimated at $6.31 per acre." (p. 198)

Prof. Arthur Yager in a paper entitled “State and Local Taxation in Kentucky”, (1884) writes:

"In Kentucky about one-third of all the taxes in the state are levied and collected by the state government. In many rural districts the only kinds of property taxation known are those imposed by the state authorities. The unit of administration for financial, as well as other purposes, is the county." (The Johns Hopkins University Circulars. Baltimore, 1884, p. 130) He goes on to say (in 1884):

“There is no state board of equalization, and the most glaring inequalities between different counties and classes of property naturally result.” (ibid.) And he adds that the same difficulty is found all over the South. There was later instituted a Board of Equalization, but it was not very efficient. In the Report of the Special Tax Commission of the State of Kentucky, 1912-14 (Frankfort, 1914) it is stated in regard to the functioning of this body under the heading “Equalization between counties”:

The State Board of Equalization then proceeds to “equalize” between counties by adding to or deducting from the value of the property as accessed such percentages as will make the value conform to the true value in money. Whenever they intend to raise a county, they send notice of that intention to the county, and the County Court may send representatives to object. The same procedure is followed in case of a proposed reduction. But this is obviously unimportant. (p. 18)

This is all very interesting, and may serve to show what equalization is, but it does not show how it works. We may imagine just what political machinations come into play when a County Court is notified that its valuation is being raised. We can also consider that valuations may be raised for political motives, or to put pressure on certain politicians. In short, we can imagine that the process of equalization may have been worse than the original evil of inequalities between the counties. Kentucky, and most of the rest of the South, with a long tradition of “pauper counties” (the term is actually very old), have never had a very fair system, if that means everyone paying the same rates on the same types of property.

There is a good deal more that can be said on this subject, and I would be interested in any comments you have about the matter. I would be particularly interested in any observations that would serve as evidence for how the equalizations work in practice. I am hoping to find a good description of this somewhere, but actual instances from the tax records are the best way of telling how it worked in practice.

All the best,

James Duvall, M. A.
Local History Research Specialist
History Department
Boone County Public Library

AQQ: Good Faith

"Good faith is the standard of public policy."

Socrates Ruggles

Request for Dispute Resolution to the Director of the Boone County Public Library, Burlington, Kentucky

24 July 2009

Lucinda Brown, Director
Boone County Public Library

Cindy,

I am sending the following notes for a meeting I thought would take place weeks ago. I am disturbed at the direction our project has taken in the last month or so, and I think you should become aware of the problems before it is too late to act in an effective manner. It may take the new director months to figure out what we were supposed to be doing, and what went wrong.

I was under the impression the project (after weeks of semi-secrecy) was being turned over to me to complete, so I began the next afternoon, a Friday (in the two hours I had before I went on the desk for the evening), by adding 99 new pages. I completed some of them, intending add the text to the rest on Monday. Monday I found myself locked out of the project. Bridget said I had changed the structure of the wiki "behind her back", etc. (I pointed out that it would have been senseless to think I was doing anything behind her back, since I knew she would be in Monday morning.) She decided she did not want me to add any pages, as she disapproved of the structure I have been developing for the last two years for the page tags. She said I could edit her pages, but not add any of my own. That I said would cause nothing but trouble, and predicted that if the current direction was continued that whole thing would become a nightmare very soon. I offered to resign from the project, so then she decided that I would only supply "content" (a word to watch), and she would edit everything.

I do not think this is a good resolution to the difficulty, for reasons that should become apparent below, but I thought it was a good tenative solution until we could have a meeting. Time is now slipping away. I tried to cooperate by sending her a great deal of material. I sent her that week 150 items, some things short notes, some long papers (I send you documentation that I supplied these items), as well as additional essays and papers in the period following. There should have been enough material there for at least 500 entries in the wiki, but I have not noticed any appreciable addition since then. I cannot at this point promise you that the Annals of Boone County will ever appear in anything like the form we initially agree on if the current rate and kind of progress continues. I think this is explained sufficiently in the essay I drafted, which appears below. I hope it will be clear that I have thought this over well, and hope that the project can take a new direction.

You can well understand that I do not wish to go head to head with Bridget. Since I am now fully at the mercy of this department I do not wish to aggravate any problems here. However, I think that there will be nothing but problems if I am locked out of the project, when I proposed it, and am supposed to be responsible for its ultimate success. I see now that she proposes to be the editor, but she does not understand how the material fits together. I know how it fits, but I cannot hand someone else the pieces and hope they get things right. It will never do for me to be constantly standing over her shoulder pointing out yet another mistake, or stylistic misjudgment, or . . . anything at all! I am not happy with what is there now; I think it can only get worse; but, I have a proposal for constructive changes that should
make everyone happy. So please consider carefully the following, which I have also attached as a pdf document, so that you may print it, and consider it carefully, if you will.

James Duvall, M. A.
Local History Research Specialist
Annals of Boone County
Boone County Public Library
1786 Burlington Pk.
Burlington, Kentucky 41005
859-342-2665

Note: Attached to this letter was a 14 page essay outlining the importance of the structure of the material, and the problems with the direction it was being taken by Bridget Striker and Jennifer Gregory, who had assumed editorship. This document will be posted else where, and a link established.

James Duvall, M. A.
Big Bone University
Nec ossa solum, sed etiam sanguinem.

The Tide will Turn

AQQ

"When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn."

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Si judicas, cognosce. — Seneca

AQQ

"I hate dealin' with stupid people, they don't know what they can't do!"

Socrates Ruggles